I’d been PMSing hard again, but this time it took longer than the last. It didn’t cross my mind to consider I wasn’t PMSing at all until I vomited my dinner last night and breakfast this morning.
My hand shivered as I picked up a pregnancy test kit at the store and added it to the basket. Furore was there when I returned home. I couldn’t even muster a hello. I made a beeline to the bathroom and locked the door.
He knocked. “Baby, you all right?”
I sat on the toilet seat, frozen, as I waited for a stupid stick to change my life forever.
“Jo, answer me. What the fuck is going on? Are you hurt? Did he do anything to you again?”
I couldn’t speak. My heart was in my knees. My eyes were even scared to look at the test result.
“If you don’t open right now, I’ll break the fucking door.”
I summoned my courage and held the stick to take a peek.
“Stay the fuck back. I’m coming in.”
A quivering gasp fled my chest as I finally unlocked the door. He stormed in and held me tight. “What the fuck? What happened?”
Tears burned my eyes. “I don’t know. I have no idea how it happened.”
“Why are you crying? What did he do this time? Are you hurt? Speak! Don’t drive me out of my fucking mind!”
I handed him the stick.
He stopped shaking me and took it from me. When he glanced at the two glaring pink lines, all the blood rushed out of his face. “Son of a bitch.” He squeezed his eyes shut and banged the door with his fist. “Motherfucker.”
His reaction took me by surprise. I understood we agreed not to have kids, and the fact that I was pregnant must be shocking. I, myself, was shocked and hadn’t grasped what was happening yet. But his reaction hurt my feelings. This was not a reaction any woman would want to receive from a man she loved when he found out she was pregnant.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself. You don’t even know if it’s yours,” I whispered.
“You think I’m upset it might be mine? You think I’m mad you’re pregnant with my baby?”
I stared at him in confusion and frustration. “I don’t understand anything, Laius. I thought you didn’t want children.”
“I thought you didn’t either.”
“Of course, I want children. I’m a woman.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you say anything? You agreed to go on the pill? Did I give you the impression that I was forcing you—”
“No. No. But I agreed because it was the sensible decision to make.”
He looked at me as if he was seeing me for the first time. Then his shoulders slumped. “I should have known. How irritable you got when you saw Cameron and her boy. The nightmares. Why didn’t you speak to me, baby?”
“I was going to. Then Tirone had his episode and… I should have told you. I’m sorry.”
“Baby… If I could, I’d bring the whole world and throw it under your feet, not just fill you with all the babies you want.” He almost sobbed. He ran his hands through his hair and swore. Then he took me into his arms. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t know how this happened,” I cried. “I thought we had everything under control. Even when we were on the antibiotics, we had protection. I don’t—”
He broke our embrace abruptly, his expression dark and menacing. “Do you still have your bottle of the pills Rex gave you?”
I nodded.
“And your birth control?”
“Yes, Laius. Why?”
